Communication tips: Connect with customers, coworkers, and suppliers

Communication is fundamental to running a business. Here are some tips that can make it easier to communicate and connect with your customers, coworkers, and partners or suppliers.

1. Email only goes so far - continue the conversation in a meeting

A new customer has reached out to you, or you're setting up a channel with a new supplier, and you've done your work so far over email. Now you need to discuss things further, but you don't want to lose the context of the conversation. You can actually schedule a meeting right from the email thread and all of your discussion will be right there.

In Outlook, open the message, and then on the Home tab, in the Respond group, click Meeting.

In an open message, on the Message tab, in the Respond group, click Meeting.

Enter the location and start and end times as you do in any meeting request. You can also add or remove attendees, use Scheduling Assistant to find the best meeting time, or add attachments.

The header and body of the original message are included in the body of the meeting request.

2. Bring your suppliers or partners in with Microsoft Teams

If you need a close working relationship with your suppliers or partners, bring them into where you're working already. You can create a team to work with suppliers or partners and add them directly to the team as guests. To learn how to set up a team, see Bring teams and resources together.

To add a guest:

If you're a team owner, you can invite guests to your team. Go to the team name, click More options
> Add members, and then enter the guest's email address.

They'll get an email invitation from Microsoft Teams, which will inform them that they need a free Microsoft account to join the team. They can create an account using their existing email address by following the instructions provided. They can then use Microsoft Teams on the web or install the Microsoft Teams app on their computer.